Short Film Codes and Conventions

Short films have been seen as experimental and low budget ways to create creative unique little pieces of work since the early 50s. As short film had to make its mark in the film industry as Avant Garde and experimental after being dominated by the introduction of Hollywood, there has never really been any specific codes and conventions except that the film must be short (under an hour).

Short films are made in many different genres therefore different genres will have different codes and conventions, for example drama has codes and conventions such as exaggerated sounds, close ups, eerie silences and dramatic music and documentary have codes and conventions such as an interviewer asking questions, mid shots used when filming interviewees and relative music to the topic of the documentary. But short film as an art has no specific codes and conventions.